66 SOLDIER AND SPORTSMAN 



The wild red dog of India and the Cape hunting dog 

 of South Africa are equally averse from adapting 

 themselves to the conditions of captivity, so it may 

 be that they have evolved from a race of animals 

 which is not allied to the dog tribe at all. The 

 functions of mating in these two species are 

 different from those of the true dosT. 



The time for long leave in India is during the 

 hot weather. Those officers having sporting tastes 

 generally spend their leave in the jungles, but 

 a proportion must remain to carry on the work. 

 Barrack life in India at that time was apt to cause 

 boredom. A good part of the afternoon was spent 

 in sleep. Card games and gambling instincts also 

 had a fine opportunity for being developed, and a few 

 instances of what happened may prove interesting. 



There was an officer in our regiment who was 

 a most inveterate gambler. He would bet on 

 anything, even as to how long a fly would sit on 

 a lump of sugar. In his bungalow he had a rough 

 wooden table, and when he could collect two or 

 three genial souls together, the game was for 

 each man to have a lump of sugar about two 

 feet away. From the edge of the table was laid 

 a train of gunpowder to the sugar, and the pool 

 was scooped by the man who killed the largest 

 number of flies by igniting the train. About 

 eight miles from Mhow there was a hill called 



